


The Baker's Daughter

by StellaNox



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Romantic Fluff, just straight fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-11
Updated: 2019-09-11
Packaged: 2020-10-14 11:06:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20599739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StellaNox/pseuds/StellaNox
Summary: “Do you have a thing for Ladybug?” She questions, pointing her mixing spoon at him.Adrien’s fork falls into the cake as his mouth opens. “Wha- me? Have a thing for Ladybug? No, no, no.” He assures. “I’ve just... we’re just-”“Just friends.” Marinette finishes. “Yeah, I’ve heard that one before.





	The Baker's Daughter

The night is cold as Adrien Agreste walks down the empty path from his home to the Dupain-Cheng bakery. An hour ago the boy didn’t even have a destination, didn’t even know why he was sneaking out in the first place, but when his stomach started rumbling and his dramatic kwami finally came out of hiding, he knew he had to get food fast.

Marinette’s was always his comfort place. Though his trips to her house were as Chat Noir, he was sure he would be welcomed. Marinette’s family were as kind hearted as she was, it didn’t take sneaking in as Chat Noir to notice that the apple didn’t fall far from the tree in that family. 

As the door to the bakery swings open, Adrien almost braces himself for who might pop out. If it’s Marinette, he knows exactly what to say and he’s already picturing her blush. If it’s Sabine, he knows how to make her smile while also asking for a bite to eat. 

Though, if it’s Tom... he hopes that it isn’t. Ever since Tom was akumatized, Adrien admits that he doesn’t know how to approach the man. He admires Tom, loves the fact that he would do anything for his daughter, yet he’s almost jealous of Marinette because of him. In some aspects Adrien wishes that he was a Dupain-Cheng. Maybe then he’d have a father that actually showed his affection.

His mind begins to ease as he sees a shadow of a girl with pigtails pop her head out of the store door to check the streets. Marinette’s eyes glance in every direction until they fall on Adrien.

He can’t help but let out a laugh as he watches Marinette let out a scream and hide behind the open door as he approaches. “Good afternoon, Marinette.” He smiles. “I hope you’re still open, I’ve been dying to take you up on that offer of free taste tests for that macaroon recipe you told me about... am I too late?” 

Marinette’s face is in shock as she looks up at the blonde. If this were any other day she would’ve had to tell Adrien no, that the bakery was officially closed. Tonight, however, her parents had entrusted her with the kitchen until curfew. So how was it, then, that Adrien had managed to show up on the only day in the history of her entire life where her parents left her alone in the bakery? 

“Wow, what perfect timing! No. Uh, I mean, no it’s not too late! You can absolutely not come in. I mean!” She takes a deep breath before walking out on to the side walk and offering the door to Adrien. “Come in.” She hides her pain in a small grin.

Adrien returns the grin as he walks through the door, ignoring a pestering Plagg who has made it his mission to tug at Adrien’s shirt whenever he _misses _something. He remembers a conversation with Plagg not to long ago about how Adrien always misses the signs. When Adrien asked what signs he was exactly missing, Plagg only rolled his eyes. _**Look, whenever you miss something I’ll tug at your shirt, okay? Maybe then you’ll figure things out.**_ Unfortunately, Plagg had only made Adrien more confused and the more that Plagg tugged on his shirt in his every day life, the more oblivious Adrien got.

As the two set up in the kitchen, Marinette counting her ingredients while Adrien stared fondly at her from the bar stool, the tugging at his shirt grew more rapid. He flicked Plagg away with a pinch of his fingers and tried focusing back on Marinette. “So what flavors are you making tonight, my little baker?” 

Marinette’s cheeks flush as she opened her mouth to answer. Unfortunately, the words just didn’t come out. She wishes that she could talk to Adrien as a normal person would, wishes that they could be friends. But with just the way that Adrien was looking at her making her blush, she knows that she’s too far in. 

“Cake.” She says, knowing damn well that her answer had nothing to do with what Adrien just asked. 

“Cake.” Adrien repeats, a smirk forming across his lips. “Okay, cake. What flavor, then?” 

Marinette’s frustrations can easily be seen but Adrien pretends like he doesn’t notice as he watches her fumble to open a package of sugar. He reaches across the counter, taking the package from her grasp, before opening it himself and dipping his finger in to have a taste. 

Marinette’s mouth drops as she rips the package from Adrien’s hands. “You’re not supposed to do that!” She cries. “Now we have to throw this out.” She frowns as she looks down at the small indent in the sugar that Adrien had made with his finger before looking up at the boy himself.

With his finger still in his mouth, he lets out a sheepish smile and outstretches his hand to tug at the back of his head out of habit. “Sorry,” he murmurs. “I guess I’m just too eager.” 

Marinette’s heart leaps as she sets the sugar down and takes a deep breath. She’s trying to gain enough confidence to tell him that it was okay, that they would just have to use up this sugar themselves. Instead she puts on one of the most fake smiles she’s ever tried to pull off before waving her hand. “It’s okay,” she insists. “It’s just... health regulations.” 

Adrien nods as his curious eyes watch Marinette pour sugar into the large bowl. “Right.” He says. “Sorry, Mari.” 

“M-Mari?” She questions.

_Crap_. Adrien had only ever called her Mari before when he was Chat Noir. How could he be so stupid as to make a rookie slip up like that? Before he gets the chance to think of an excuse, Marinette’s talking again and he can’t help but watch her lips as she speaks.

“Um... it’s funny, I only know one other person who calls me that. Do you... by any chance know Chat Noir in real life?” 

_Lie_. He told himself. _Say you don’t know him._ _Say you were just kidding around. Say anything that doesn’t relate you to your alter ego. Lie, god damn it_.

“Chat Noir? I’ve talked to him a few times.” 

Plagg tugs at Adrien’s shirt once more but this time he pinches the skin around his chest and Adrien can’t help but let out a groan as he reaches his hand into his overshirt to swat at Plagg. “Okay, I deserved that.” 

Marinette’s eyebrows furrow as she watches the blonde wince in pain. “Deserved what?” 

Adrien’s eyes grow wide as he freezes in place, feeling Plagg’s teeth surround his finger. If he wasn’t about to reveal his secret identity to the girl that he was desperately trying to hold a conversation with he would’ve grabbed Plagg and shoved him away from his shirt, away from him completely, but instead he shoves his hand out and places it on to the counter in front of him. 

“What?” He repeats her once more. “I said that I could really go for a dessert platter.” He closes his eyes and smiles, hoping his lie would pass. 

Fortunately, when he opens his eyes and sees the crinkle in Marinette’s as she opens the fridge and takes out a plate full of cheesecake, he knows that the lie worked. 

“So you’ve talked to Chat?” She asks as she places the cheesecake in front of Adrien with a fork. “He comes to visit here sometimes, you know? Maybe if we’re lucky he’ll come tonight!” 

Adrien’s eyes almost turn into hearts at the sight of the cake in front of him. His stomach twists and turns at ease as he digs his fork into the center of the cake. He takes of bite of the cake before letting out a satisfied hum, giving the girl in front of him a thumbs up. 

“I don’t think he’d come by at a time like this,” he tells her. “Him and Ladybug are probably out patrolling or something. Last night I saw them at the Eiffel Tower. Not sure what happened but Ladybug looked pretty ticked.” 

Marinette’s face falls in annoyance as she subconsciously slams the milk down to the counter after pouring it into her mixture. She remembers the night before where Chat had called her in the middle of the night, telling her that he spotted another akuma victim. When she had met him at the tower, however, he pretended like he didn’t know anything about the twenty-three messages he had left her and asked her to hang out. 

‘_Some of us have a life, you know_.’ She had told him. 

‘_Yeah, and some of us just want to see their best friend_.’ He had an answer ready, she could tell, but it didn’t make her any less angry with the fact that he was keeping her from sleep on the day that she had 3 tests at school.

“Ticked?” She questions Adrien as she snaps out of her thoughts. “When I saw Ladybug this morning she looked fine. I wonder what she could’ve been mad about.” She smiles, not really knowing why she was trying to defend her alter ego, as she adds flour into her bowl.

Adrien shrugs, taking another large bite of the cheesecake. “Chat Noir says that she’s always angry with him at some point, he just chooses to ignore it because he values their friendship.” 

Marinette can’t help but whisper under her breath at his response. “Yeah well if he knew she had 3 tests and boy issues he would understand.” 

“Boy issues?” Adrien perks up at this and he can’t help but feel a tinge of jealousy rush over him. “How could Ladybug possibly have boy issues if she’s saving Paris literally everyday?” 

In some way Marinette feels obligated to defend herself, to defend Ladybug. At the same time, though, she wonders how in the hell she was able to hold a conversation with Adrien, let alone an argument. She watches as Adrien takes an angry bite of the cake and stuff it in his mouth and she wonders why the boy is so angry. 

“Do you have a thing for Ladybug?” She questions, pointing her mixing spoon at him.

Adrien’s fork falls into the cake as his mouth opens. “Wha- me? Have a thing for Ladybug? No, no, no.” He assures. “I’ve just... we’re just-”

“Just friends.” Marinette finishes. “Yeah, I’ve heard that one before.

The two are silent for a moment. The tension is rising and Adrien almost thinks that he should get up and bolt out of the store. Marinette continues mixing her cake batter in silence and Adrien can only guess why Plagg is tugging at his shirt once more. 

“Mari?”

He gets no response.

Adrien sighs as he gets up from the bar stool and turns to face the door. He takes two steps before he feels two arms wrap around his waist and a head lean against his back.

“I’m sorry.” Marinette whispers, clinging on to the boy. “Don’t go, you still haven’t tasted the cake.” 

Adrien’s heart skips multiple beats as he feels her against him. The warmth that radiates from Marinette is almost intoxicating and he wonders why this feels so familiar, why it feels so _right_. His hands fall to hers as he slips his fingers in between hers. “I don’t... know what I’m doing.” He admits. “I’ve never done this before.” 

“Done what?” She asks.

He tries to find the right words to express himself. He tries, damn it, but how can he tell Marinette that he’s never experienced an argument with someone who wasn’t a family member of his? He had made it up in his mind that he had already used the ‘_I’ve never had friends before_’ card way too many times and he was tired of making excuses for his actions but... what else could he really do?

“Please,” he begs, voice threatening to falter. “Just tell me what I need to do to fix whatever I did to you.”

Once again the bakery hovers in silence as Marinette slowly releases her hands from Adrien’s and takes a step back, completely untangling herself from him.

Adrien almost considers turning around and pulling her back towards him and wrapping his arms around her waist, tucking his chin into her neck. Instead, he sucks in before turning around and facing Marinette.

As he turns he notices her puffy cheeks, notices her hand reaching up to wipe away her tears, and his heart almost breaks. It was never his intention to make Marinette cry. In fact, he had made it his personal mission months ago to always keep her happy. She was good to him, he thought, so why did he constantly fail his own mission? 

“That’s the issue.” She utters. “You haven’t done anything, Adrien... at least not consciously.” She wipes away another tear for looking up at the blonde and waving her hand away. “It’s my fault, okay? Just forget it. You can go if you want to.” 

Adrien takes a step towards her now, reaching a hand out to caress her cheek, but immediately stops in his tracks as Marinette takes a step backwards and turns her face. She’s distant all of a sudden and Adrien takes it way too personally. 

“Tell me what I did.” He attempts. “Marinette, I won’t be able to go to sleep at night knowing that I upset you. Please, for the love of god, _tell me what I did_.”

“You called me a friend!” Marinette shouts, causing Adrien to take a step back in surprise. “That’s what you did, Adrien. You called me your friend. And I know how stupid that sounds and I know that you won’t understand because you don’t understand that I’m in love with you. Every time you say we’re just friends or that I’m _one of your guys_ my heart feels like you’ve stabbed it into a million tiny pieces but you don’t understand that. I can’t blame you, either, because you’ve never experience friendship before. I can’t tell you how much it hurts or how much I wished you would stop calling me a friend because I’m terrified that I’ll upset you. Is that what you were wanting me to say?”

Marinette continues and Adrien feels like he’s sinking lower and lower as she does. Not once had he ever seen Marinette so worked up, he was almost afraid of her in all honesty, but he was the cause of her stress. He made her this way.

While Marinette continues to rant, Adrien’s arms reach out to her and pull her closer to him. He wraps his hands around her waist as she tells him that he’s oblivious, tucks his chin into her neck as she calls him selfish, and closes his eyes as she compares him to a lost puppy. 

“W-What are you doing?” She asks as she realizes what’s happening. 

“I’m hugging you.” Adrien replies.

“I can see that, I’m not blind.”

He chooses to ignore her comment as he lets out a sigh. “I’m sorry.” He finally says. “I... I think I always knew you liked me but I’m not exactly quick to pick things like that up, you know.”

Marinette’s confused. Not once in the millions of times that she had confessed to Adrien in her head did the outcome look like this. Not once had she imagined she would confess to Adrien in a fit of rage just for him to hug her and tell her that he knew. Still, she can’t help but return the hug and wrap her arms around the boy’s shoulders. “You knew?”

A smile spreads across the boy’s lips as he gently presses them against Marinette’s neck. Of course he did, he thinks to himself. What kind of girl would go out of her way to make a boy breakfast every single morning after he had told her he doesn’t have enough time to if she didn’t like him? What kind of girl would blush at just the sight of a boy if she didn’t like him? Adrien had his suspicious for a while now. It was nice to know that he was finally right about something. 

The question lingered, however, if Adrien liked her back or not. The truth was that Adrien didn’t know. He didn’t know how to like someone if it wasn’t Ladybug. He was fixated on the superhero to the point where she was all he could think about at one point. Then he remembers, as Marinette begins to rub his back, that Marinette took up the other half of his thoughts.

He would constantly think of ways to brighten her smile or ways to make her blush. His goal was to make her happy, after all. Could that be what others would call a secret crush? But... how could Adrien have a crush on a girl without even realizing it, he wonders. 

“I think... I think I might like to you, too, Mari.” He whispers in her ear. He feels her body tense and he can’t help but let out a chuckle as he nudges his nose against her ear. “I’ll tell you what,” he offers. “I’ll try to be less oblivious and less puppy-like if you tell me how you’re feeling, alright? I want to make you happy, not be the cause of your anger.”

“You don’t have to do this.” Marinette says as she tries to untangle herself from the boy once again. She tries to push Adrien’s shoulders away but this time he has a hold on her and he refuses to let her go. “You don’t have to pretend for my sake. Let’s just... call it a night and pretend like nothing happened, okay?”

Adrien shakes his head, pulling her back into his arms. “No.” He protests. “I don’t want to forget that we finally made progress, Marinette. You’re the only person who’s actually told me how you feel about me. How am I supposed to pretend it never happened?” 

“It’ll be easy.” She insists. She’s accepted her defeat, standing awkwardly with her hands to her sides while Adrien continues hugging her. She doesn’t want to admit that it hurts her to say the next few sentences. “We’ll go to school like nothing happened. When Nino asks you how your night went you’ll tell him you got home late from fencing practice and studied until you fell asleep. I’ll tell Alya I was baking until curfew and then I went to sleep. You don’t have to like me out of obligation, I don’t want to do that to you.”

“You’re acting like you’ve already accepted that I won’t like you back.” Adrien removes his chin from her neck and decides that now is the time to look her directly in the eye. “Marinette, listen to me.” His face inches closer as he looks down at her lips, noting how inviting they look, before looking back into her pearly blues. “I refuse to go to school and act like this night never happened.” He tells her. “Tomorrow when Nino asks how my night went I’ll tell him that I came here and saw you. Then after school I’ll convince my bodyguard to drop us off at Andre’s for ice cream. I’m not rejecting you.”

Marinette’s eyes snap open as she takes in every word that Adrien has told her. It was as if her mind snapped back into reality as she realizes what just happened. “Wait...D-Did you just ask me out?”

The blonde can’t help but let out a laugh as he quickly kisses the tip of Marinette’s nose. “I guess you could call it that.” As he releases Marinette, he can’t help but run his hands down her arm, towards her wrist. His hand fiddles with the lucky charm bracelet he had made her before a shy smile is formed across his lips. Then he notices the thin watch and notices just how much time has passed since he had gotten here.

Nathalie normally checked in on Adrien at eight thirty. It was now eight twenty-three. 

“I really hate to do this but if I don’t get home now I’ll be grounded for the rest of my life... will I see you tomorrow after school?” He asks, watching Marinette’s shocked expression change to that blushy, school girl crush face that he knows all too well. 

“We’ll just have to wait and see.” She crosses her arms and winks, the first bold act she’s ever made in front of Adrien, before uncrossing her arms and shaking her head. “I mean yes!” She struggles for a moment before nodding and giving Adrien a sweet smile. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow,” Adrien repeats with a nod of his own head. “Bye, Mari.” 

Marinette’s heart is beating a million miles a minute as Adrien swings the door open and closes it behind him. It’s then that she makes a mental note to tell Chat Noir to never call her Mari again, that nickname would be reserved for Adrien and Adrien only from now on. 

“Wow, Marinette!” Tikki sings as she flies out hiding from the cookie jar. “Looks like you and Adrien are going to be pretty close from now on, huh?”

Marinette can’t help but giggle to herself before running in place and waving her fists in the air. “Did you see me, Tikki?!” She shouts. “I played it cool, I didn’t make a complete idiot of myself this time! And I have a date with Adrien tomorrow! _**Adrien**_!”

Tikki smiles before doing a dance of her own. “Yeah! Too bad you promised Chat Noir you’d meet him tomorrow after school also.” 

Immediately Marinette’s high is grounded. Her face falls as she sinks dramatically to the ground and pounds on the floor with her fists. “You’ve got to be kidding me!”

-

As Adrien runs down the street, Plagg can’t help but smirk as he flies next to him. “Well, well, well.” He starts. “Looks like you’re not most oblivious person in Paris after all.”

Adrien smiles as he looks towards his Kwami. Plagg had always thrown Marinette into the ring when Adrien was talking about his crush on Ladybug, telling him to broaden his horizons, had he been on to something all of this time? Adrien can only wonder.

“Can you believe it, Plagg? I’m going on my first date ever... and it’s going to be with Marinette!” 

“You two really are made for one another.” Plagg, knowing very well just how made for each other the two really were, can’t help but feel excited at what was to come in the future of this relationship. Maybe, he hopes, if they can trust each other enough as Marinette and Adrien they’ll finally be able to tell each other the truth. 

Plagg’s smirk is immediately replaced with a horrified look as he watches Adrien. “Uhh... did you fail to remember you’re supposed to meet Marinette tomorrow as Chat Noir also?”

That’s when Adrien stops dead in his tracks, Plagg almost failing to stop as well. Adrien’s shocked expression fades as his eyebrows lift upwards and his mouth turns to a frown. “I’m sure she’ll be happy with just me... right?”

He looks to Plagg one last time and notices the laughter coming from him. Adrien can’t help but laugh along as he picks up speed and continues towards home. 

“I can’t wait until you two finally figure it out.” Plagg chuckles to himself as Adrien speeds past him.

**Author's Note:**

> I've literally rewritten this damned piece three times. yallbetterlikeitoristg


End file.
